Next Economy Now highlights the leaders who are taking a regenerative, bio-regional, democratic, transparent, and whole-systems approach to solving social and environmental challenges.

The goal of this podcast is to identify the trends, tips, and best practices that will help listeners better harness the power of business as a force for good.

In this episode, Shawn Berry, a Partner at LIFT Economy, interviews Scott Morris. Scott is an economist, community organizer and social entrepreneur. He has dedicated his career to solving the problem of why the economy only works well for some, while others get left out. He is currently the founder and CEO of IthaCash. Ithacash is "Money Made for Main St.", a regional cooperative currency program for in-and-around Tompkins County, New York where the marketplace & local money work together for local people, causes, and economies by offering another way to meet real needs.

Ithacash serves the community by granting homegrown funding to area civic organizations and fostering local resilience. Ithacash is building on the legacy of the Ithaca HOURs currency program begun in 1991 and will be a flagship pilot program for Qoin's community currency software in the US.

In this interview, Shawn and Scott discuss a number of topics, including:

Scott’s personal journey coming to this work

Creating a new currency and aspects of currency design

New developments in complementary currencies

Benefits created for local economy

History and case studies of successful currencies

To listen to this podcast, please click the image at the top of the article.

In addition to listening on B the Change Media, you can listen/subscribe to Next Economy Now on iTunes, Overcast, Stitcher, or your favorite podcasting platform.

Shawn Berry is a Partner at LIFT Economy, where he works as an organizational strategist inspired to harness the power of business to create resilient local economies as patterns to be documented, open sourced, scaled globally and adapted regionally.

LIFT Economy is an impact consulting firm whose mission is to create, model, and share a locally self-reliant economy that works for the benefit of all life. You can follow Shawn on Twitter @sd_berry or email him shawn@lifteconomy.com.